City As One

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Objective:

Cardiff City Football Club are a professional football club based in the Welsh capital. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system.

In a bid to drive season ticket sales for the 2016/17 Football League Championship season, a concept had to be developed that would engage existing and new fans at a very crucial time of the football league season. Relegation from the Premier League along with a break from traditional club colours, had resulted in a decline in game attendance and the team was also on the verge of not making the playoffs.

Target Group:

Welsh Football fans.

Strategy and Media Used:

An out-of-home campaign was developed using posters and bus shelters that targeted areas /traffic leading to and from the stadium. The creative conveyed Cardiff City FC as a dynamic and ambitious football club with a heavily stylized design that included the fans, the stadium and the surrounding areas – a multiple exposure effect. The hashtag #CityAsOne summed up that notion of togetherness perfectly, emphasizing the fact that the fans are integral to future success.

To complement the out-of-home campaign a pay per click remarketing program was developed and identified top searches and websites that the target audience were most likely to visit or use. A remarketing code was placed on every page of the Cardiff City FC ticket website so that if a customer visited the website but did not buy a ticket they were shown the advertising elsewhere, encouraging them to complete their booking.

Results:

Working with the club’s marketing team, season ticket sales were up 15% for the 2015/16 season. Attendance for the final months of the season increased dramatically and the home game for Cardiff v Derby recorded the highest attendance to-date at the Cardiff City Stadium (including their season in the Premier League).